Sudeep inspired Arya’s look in Rajaratha

When the team of director Anup Bhandari’s next, the Kannada-Telugu bilingual, Rajaratha/Rajaratham, released Tamil actor Arya’s first look as Vishwa in the film, it had created quite a stir. But here’s the thing, his look in the

film

was apparently inspired by none other than

Kiccha Sudeep

.

In the 90s, Sudeep had worked in Anup’s father Sudhakar Bhandari’s Kannada teleserial, Premada Kadambari. Years later, when Anup’s short film, Words, won an award, Sudeep was the guest of honour at the press meet. What struck Anup, who at that point was working on the initial draft of Rajaratha, was Sudeep’s attire — a blue

kurta

, jeans and sandals. It was exactly what he envisioned Vishwa’s character to look like. When

Rajaratha

pre-production started, Anup suggested the same to his wife Neetha Shetty, the costume designer of the film, who used that as reference to come up with Arya’s look for the film.